Re-Amping with Firebox and Little Labs Redeye 3D Equipment This is the equipment I used to set up and test this Presonus FireBox Little Labs Redeye 3D Phantom one XLR->XLR cable One 1/4 TRS->XLR (male) cable Digitech RP1000 MultiFx unit four 1/4 unbalanced cables (3 of which should be pretty short) REAPER digital audio workstation Guitar with Passive pickups Variations Any DAW should work. I also had a play with Cubase LE4 and that worked fine though I didn't note down what settings I used If you are micing an Amp instead of using a MultiFx unit you will need to: replace two of the 1/4 unbalanced cables with an XLR->XLR mic cable mic your amp with a mic of your choice You can use a separate DI Box (e.g. Radial J48, Countryman etc) and Reamp Box (e.g. Radial X-amp, John Cuniberti Reamp etc) You can use the FireBox instrument input in place of a separate DI box though creating a nice monitor signal to listen to whilst recording the dry DI track would potentially be a bit of a hassle. A software amp modelling plugin would probably work well. Alternatively and I haven't tried this so it's pure guesswork! - you could try sending the monitored output of the track to Line 3 on the FireBox as a type of Thru connection and listen to it via the re-amp signal path through your MFX/amp. No idea whether that works though. Regardless of whether you use the FireBox as your DI or not you will need a Reamp box! Connections 1. Connect Guitar to input of Redeye using 1/4 cable. If you are using passive pickups use the front input. For active pickups use the rear input 2. Connect of Redeye to Mic/Instr input 1 on the FireBox using the XLR->XLR cable 3. Connect Line Out 3 of FireBox to the Redeye Mic input using 1/4 TRS->XLR cable 4. Connect Instrument/Re-amp out on Redeye to MultiFX input using short 1/4 cable 5. Connect MultiFX 1/4 outputs to Line s 3 & 4 on FireBox using short 1/4 cables. This will allow full stereo recording 6. Turn Phantom power on the FireBox on if you are using the front (passive) input on the Redeye Recording the Dry Track 1 Ensure DI/Re-amp button is out on Redeye for DI-ing your dry track 2 Start your DAW, create a project and create an audio track 3 Make sure the track is MONO. You are recording a mono dry guitar signal 4 Set the input of the track to Mic/Instr 1 from the FireBox 5 Whilst playing the guitar adjust the gain Mic/Instr 1 gain on the FireBox to get a
signal that peaks around -4dB for your hardest playing. Do not go much over -4dB peak as a guitar signal can be extremely dynamic in level 6 MAKE SURE NO LIMITERS OR COMPRESSORS ARE ACTIVE ON THE DI TRACK. You want to capture your guitar playing exactly how you play it. Limiters and compressors will destroy the track 7 Turn output to the main bus off on the dry DI Track. You do not want to monitor this in your mix 8 Arm the track for recording 9 If you want to record a scratch track at the same time as the dry track do the following: 9.1 Create a stereo audio track 9.2 Set the input of the Stereo track to FireBox line in's 3 & 4 9.3 You could also use two mono tracks and record line in's 3 & 4 separately 9.4 Arm the track(s) for recording 10 In the FireBox mixer select the Mix option for Playback to Headphones and solo Line in's 3 & 4. This will give you zero latency monitoring. Adjust settings to suit with monitor speakers 11 Set any other tracks you want to monitor to playback in your DAW (e.g. Drums, bass etc) 12 Press record and play You now have your dry track Re-amping your Guitar Track Getting the levels right First thing to do is get your re-amp level correct. For this to work you need a Re-amp output signal level that matches your Guitar signal level. After a bit of a play I came up with the following trick that seems to work well 1. Plug the Instrument/Re-amp output on the Redeye into the on the Redeye. This essentially means the re-amp signal is being directed straight back into the instrument input. Be careful with your routing options in your DAW as this has the potential to create some interesting feedback loops! 2. Turn on the DI/Re-amp button on the front of the RedEye 3. Set the output of the dry DI track to Line Out 3 on the FireBox 4. Pan the dry track completely left so that it's solely going out the Line Out 3 output and is not split across both Line out 3 & 4 5. Create a dummy audio track in your DAW 6. Set the input of the dummy track to the FireBox Mic/Instr 1 input 7. Arm the track for recording (you're not actually going to record it we just want to monitor the signal level) 8. Solo the original dry DI track 9. Reset the peak level reading on the level meter in your DAW for the original dry DI track and the dummy track (I can't remember off the top of my head how to do this in Cubase but in REAPER you simply click the current peak level value at the end of the level meter to reset it) 10.Go to the start of the song 11. Press play in your DAW and watch the peak levels of the two tracks. The difference in peak levels between the two tracks (which should be basically consistent as the dry track plays) is the amount of gain that has to be added or subtracted to the output of the dry DI track. This can be done either by changing the output level in your
DAW for the dry track or by adjusting the level and/or overdrive settings on the Redeye. In my case the difference was about 2.2dB so I simply set the output level of the dry track to +2.2dB in REAPER. Once you've done this you can use this same setting for all dry guitar tracks in your project as long as you don't change the FireBox Mic/Instr 1 input gain. You can delete the dummy track if you like. Re-amping So now the fun part begins and we can do some re-amping: 1. Plug the Redeye instrument/re-amp output back into your MFX input 2. Create a Stereo audio track 3. Set the input of the Stereo track to FireBox line in's 3 & 4 4. You could also use two mono tracks and record line in's 3 & 4 separately 5. Arm the track(s) for recording 6. The dry track should already be soloed from the re-amp level adjustment above. You can also solo any other tracks you like to monitor if you want to hear your re-amped guitar track in the mix 7. Play/Loop the dry track and monitor Line in's 3 & 4 via the FireBox mixer as you adjust your effects settings. Repeat until your happy with the tone 8. Go back to the start of the song 9. Press record and let the dry track play right through You now have a re-amped track(s). Repeat as desired for multiple takes of the same dry track with different settings and/or multiple dry track/re-amp recordings. Alternative options The steps above can be altered to suit different external hardware such as: 1. If you are recording a guitar amp instead of a MultiFx pedal change the Line in 3 & 4 setup to Mic/Instr input 2 and mic your guitar amp. Also change the audio track input for your scratch and re-amp tracks to Mix/Instr input 2. During re-amping also try varying the mic position on the speaker for different tones 2. If you are using a separate DI Box and Reamp box use the same settings but obviously separate the connections appropriately between the two units. The biggest difference is you will need to change the connection to the MFX/amp from the DI thru connection during dry track recording to the Re-amp output during reamping. Or maybe you could use a A/B selector to emulate the DI/Re-amp button on the Redeye? 3. If you are DI-ing through the FireBox Mic/Instr 1 input instead of an external DI box you will probably want to work out a way to monitor a processed version of the dry track as noted at the beginning in the Variations section. Monitoring the dry track directly during recording sounds pretty horrible. 4. If you are using active guitar pickups you should still be able to DI the signal via a DI box or the Redeye but in the latter case use the rear input connection on the Redeye. If you are DI-ing straight into the FireBox the FireBox manual recommends plugging into Line In 3 or 4 instead of a Mic/Instr input. This would obviously be a bit tricky if you also want to record your MFX output through the same Line In connections so a DI Box would be helpful.
Guitar Redeye FireBox Mic Out Mic/Instr 1 Line In 3 Instr/ Re-amp Mic In Line In 4 Line Out 3 MultiFX Right Left Drawing 1: Sample connection using Redeye and MultiFX unit Guitar DI Box FireBox Mic Instr 1 Thru Mic Instr 2 Line Out 3 Need to switch back and forth between DI Thru and Re- Amp out Amp Re-Amp Box Mic'ed output Drawing 2: Sample connection using DI Box, Re-Amp Box and Guitar amp